Second Chances (45 page)

Mitch nodded. “Let me finish up here, get the chores going, then I'll check my mail and meet you later. Say around ten a.m.?”

“Sure boss,” Jolie said with another dutiful nod. “We'll be waiting,” she said, rushing off to her table.

“A meeting?”

“Not much to do in the winter, might as well talk things to death I suppose,” Travis grumbled.

“Dusty, come on,” Gunny Hodges said, shaking his head. “Mitch here isn't a politician. I doubt he's interested in that.”

“In talking someone's ear off? Not really. But sometimes talking to get everyone on the same page...” Mitch shrugged. “We shall see. I'll call the council in to listen and add their two cents worth,” he said. The two men nodded.

“You'd better give Lisa, the Summersets and the Lings a go then. Otherwise they may wait all day for you to come around,” the gunny warned.

Mitch exhaled noisily then nodded. “I'll sick them on a truck project. They know what they are doing now, and they've got the parts on hand. We'll have to table the aircraft for later,” he said.

“Are you still thinking about the straight-up aircraft or the tilt rotor?” Akira asked from down the table.

Mitch finished his cereal and then downed his coffee. “Straight,” he said, ignoring the Korean's disappointed look. “We need to follow the KISS principle in the initial build. Once we get the bugs out of the process, then we can start trying more complex things. For now, Keep It Simple is safe.”

“Definitely,” the gunny said with a nod as Mitch left.

------*------

Mitch came into the radio room and grabbed a seat. He nodded toai Janet and the others; some were leaning against the counters or seated. All were curious about the topic. He quickly sketched out what had been in his e-mail to them. They nodded.

“So...”

“So, I pitched to Jack and the others the idea of having an annual meeting. They are calling me on it. Sort of a representatives meeting.”

“Governor's meeting? Mayors?” the Chief said, crossing his arms. “Why now?”

“Call it community leaders,” Mitch said, feeling uncomfortable. “I guess since they are bored and don't have much else to do...” Mitch shrugged.

“We still need to work on the Mountain Village plan. God that sounds like some neighborhood planning thing,” Janet said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“It does, doesn't it?”

“I like the idea of the name. I mean, we've got to call it something. This place too. I mean base?” Anne shrugged. “It doesn't fit.” She looked at Mitch. “Sorry Mitch but...”

“It's home but not home plate,” Mitch said with a bit of whimsy. She nodded. “I get it. I never thought about naming this place.”

“We can maybe poll it?” Anne asked suggestively. “Give people something to talk about. A hand in the decision making process,” she said. He reluctantly nodded.

“From what I've gathered,” Gunny said, with a hand up. “And this is just from observation mind you,” he nodded his head to Mitch once. “You've set this place up as a city—both an industrial city and an informational one.”

“Don't forget vehicles,” Janet said.

“Or medicine,” Sandra said.

“Or farming,” Anne said.

“Okay, all of the above. A center for everything. Not quite Alexandria or Rome but a modern day equivalent,” Gunny Hodges said.

“A capital,” Lisa said softly. They turned to her. She squirmed uncomfortably. “Well, it is shaping up to be that. You said, all roads lead to Rome. Well, all roads lead here. Or come from here. We're the capital. Capital Base,” she said.

“I can live with that or Capital City,” the gunny said, nodding. He was clearly ready to put the matter to rest early.

“It's better than Landing or something hokey I suppose,” Janet said. “A bit plain, but it works,” she said.

“I'm more concerned about the pretensions and the reactions of the other communities when they hear the name,” Mitch said slowly. “You know what, float the name and others. See what people here say,” he said. The others nodded.

“So, back to this plan,” Janet said. “We're going to what, host, probably transport and feed representatives from each of the communities here in...Capital Base to get them on the same page.”

“Yes, like we did before with Professor Lane, Jack, Mike, and Axel,” Sandra said.

“Okay, and we're going to show them what exactly? The base? Okay, I get that. Those binders you handed out? Then what? You're going to have a lot of envy and resentment.”

“Not my aim,” Mitch said. “I'd like to get them rolling on better securing their homes, maybe help them with the basics. Get them above the starvation level.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Get trade going, which is important,” he said. The others nodded. “From there, I'd like some sort of, I don't know, rules. Territorial boundaries, rules we all can agree to,” he said.

“Laws?” the chief asked, raising an eyebrow. “Enforcing them...”

“The basics. Modeled after the US constitution,” Lisa said softly. The others looked to her. She ducked her head. Brian squeezed her hand in support.

“It's not going to be easy. First we have to find them. Some are going to be put out that we've been here talking with Iron Village and Copper Town and the others for what, the better part of a year while they've been left out,” Janet warned.

“Sucks to be them. We'll bring them up to speed,” Brian said. Janet glowered at him. He shrugged her look off.

“When?” Janet asked.

“As soon as possible to lay the ground work I think,” Mitch said with a shrug. “I think we need to get the others involved,” he said, nodding to Pete. Pete flipped a switch and then called softly on the radio.

“You there, Jack? Mike? Professor?” Pete asked. One by one he got confirmation. Professor Lane and Jack's signals were a bit weak however.

“So, what do we want to talk about here?” Jack asked. “It's nice out now, but I think we've got another storm front coming in. Better make this quick; the power may drop out soon,” he warned.

Janet mouthed “Fill me in later” and tiptoed out. Lisa, Brian, and most of the others soon followed.

Mitch outlined what he'd just said plus what they'd talked about earlier. They agreed to have a meeting after the spring thaw when the first planting was finished. “It's a good idea, getting it done in the spring,” Jack said. “I know you are eager to get this done. We can get a lot done over the radio, Mitch,” Jack said. “Well, up until we're out of power,” he said.

Mitch grunted. The average temperature were dropping daily. Chunks of ice were turning up in the waterfall and messing up the turbines. He'd been tempted to shut them down early but didn't want to give up the power. He was shutting them down at night, draining them to prevent the water from freezing and bursting the valves and pipes as it expanded.

The solar panels were also having issues despite cleaning them daily. The clouds were picking up becoming a daily nuisance. The cloud cover trapped the infrared energy but blocked a lot of the other wavelengths thus cutting the efficiency of the panels. It did warm things up by the afternoon though, but the temperature dropped fast once the sun was down.

The only thing he had that was generating power at full capacity was the wind turbines. They were working flat out in the breezy afternoons and evenings. So much so that two of the towers had triggered their governors to keep the turbines from overheating.

“We need an alternative power source. I know you're big on environmental shit, but, Mitch, we
need
a sustainable power source,” Jack said. “Something we can burn all year long.”

“Operative word burn, Jack?” Mitch asked mildly. He didn't like the idea at all. He didn't like fossil fuels. He had set up his operation to use the most modern power generation as well as the best super conductor batteries to store it all.

“Coal may not be viable. Oil...”

“First we've got to find it,” Mitch sighed.

“It's a problem,” Evan Lane said, interjecting himself into the conversation. “I am with Mister Chambers though, I don't like being reliant on fossil fuels.”

“Well, we'd have a long time to worry about greenhouse gasses,” Jack said.

“True.”

“Solar mirrors are out. They are death on wild life,” Evan said firmly. Mitch winced. He had a set of sodium solar mirrors on the base. They were indeed death on any birds or insects that flew by. He'd decided to switch production to photovoltaic. He would keep the solar mirrors, but he wasn't sure what he'd do with them.

“Besides, we'd need a lot of reflective material,” Mitch said.

“I'm more concerned about a dino tiptoeing through a solar field,” Mike said. That got a laugh from the other men.

“We can't do nuclear even if we wanted to. Geothermal is out, unless we can find some hot springs. It's possible I suppose,” Evan mused.

“Hydroelectric?”

“Possible. As is wind turbines. I've got an automated solar panel factory going,” Mitch said defensively.

“It's no good in the winter,” Jack said. “Hydro's nice, but we've got to build a dam and that takes time and a hell of a lot of resources. And it exposes our people to the wild. Something I'm not at all crazy about if you catch my drift.”

“True,” Mitch said, frowning thoughtfully. He made a mental note to look into the situation later.

“Wind is nice, but if it's a calm day...” Evan pointed out, then sighed. “And getting the blades to balance properly...setting them up will require a crane...and the power is good for electrical, but you have to run lines to the community. Power lines that can be damaged by the local wildlife.”

“So, we're right back to burning something,” Mike said.

“Not necessarily just coal,” Evan said hastily. “In Brazil they burned sugar cane. Or ethanol. If we had a source of methane...”

“Dino farts?” Jack said wickedly. That got a snort from Mitch and Mike.

“Be serious,” Evan scolded.

“Sorry, professor,” Jack said. “Trying to lighten the mood a bit,” he said after a pause.

“I see. Well, Coal, natural gas, gas, oil, ethanol, bio-waste...”

“We're a bit late about thinking about this project aren't we?” Mike asked. “It's too cold to do anything productive. We're waiting on another series of snow storms any day now. We can't prospect for materials; we can't build much...”

“Power and raw material are an issue,” Mitch said. “I've got every battery fully charged. I've got hydrogen, methane and ethylene but we're low on the gases because Paul and Sam used a lot this year. I've also been using a bit in the manufacturing lately,” he admitted. “The stockpiles are slowly being replenished now that they aren't in use, but once my power budget drops, I'll have to cut that off.”

“And no one likes having a lot of those chemicals around in large quantities,” Professor Lane said.

“Professor Lane is correct,” Mitch said

“Please, call me Evan,” Evan replied.

“Only if you call me Mitch,” Mitch replied. They'd been over that before; the professor kept slipping into calling him Mister Chambers from time to time. “Every time you call me Mister Chambers I look over my shoulder for my dad or grandfather,” he said, smiling slightly. “I was wondering; the burning plant you have in mind...”

“Yes...?”

“I remember putting something like that in the kits. The second level kits that my people handed out. Little portable stoves with a self-contained water boiler turbine on the side. If we make, say a water tank, and oh, attach it to an iron stove, then run copper lines to a turbine...”

“You're talking about steam! Yes! We could do something like that. Essentially the same idea or a variation of a steam locomotive boiler...” Evan paused. “Yes, it's doable and scalable. And we'd get the added benefit of some of the heat.”

“And hot water for cooking and showers,” Jack said.

“If we didn't close the loop yes, certainly,” Evan said.

“We can close the loop when demand is low,” Mitch said. “I'm not sure about efficiency; we can experiment. I've got the latest shipments of copper and iron; we can work something out,” he said thoughtfully. “Experiment.”

“Good plan. Even if it is only a couple watts...” Evan said.

“Every little bit helps, right,” Jack said. Mike grunted.

“I've got some hydrogen and hydrogen generators,” Mitch admitted thoughtfully. “My vehicles are electric hybrids as you know. Electric and hydrogen. The Hydrogen is both a torque engine and a generator for the electric. Some can be adapted to use other fuels or use the hydrogen engine strictly as a generator. It's one of the things I set up when I had them design the vehicles.”

“Okay.”

“We have a couple of flex fuel vehicles,” Evan said thoughtfully.

“I have a small hydrogen farm, but I'm not keen about having a lot of hydrogen on hand. Sure, water is plentiful, but it takes electricity to break it into hydrogen and oxygen, then it takes power to compress the hydrogen, cool it, and store it. It's inefficient. In the end it's a net loss.”

“True,” Evan replied thoughtfully.

“I had toyed with the idea of producing hydrogen with the excess energy during the warm months, store it, then use it in the winter or in manufacturing. Or bond it to something that's easier to store, like methane. Unfortunately, we've been running the trucks and vehicles nonstop, so that never happened,” Mitch said.